The supervisor of the Washington Nationals stadium project slipped a $33 million contract past the legislative oversight process by introducing the deal in the last days of 2006, several D.C. Council members claim.
Council Member Carol Schwartz has introduced a resolution admonishing the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission for the way in which it submitted the contract for two above-ground parking garages on the Southeast stadium site. The $32.9 million deal, Schwartz said, was delivered to the council on Dec. 21, two days after the last legislative meeting of the year.
The contract was automatically approved Jan. 1, while the council was still in recess. In a council meeting last week, Schwartz called the commission’s actions an “in-your-face circumvention” of the rules.
“The council believes that the timing of the filing of this contract was done in such a manner as to implicitly circumvent the role of this body to provide due diligence in its review of contracts in excess of $1 million,” the resolution states. “The council is outraged, appalled and dismayed by the actions of the District of Columbia Sports and Entertainment Commission with respect to this contract and feels it is a great affront to the checks and balances process prescribed in the District’s Home Rule Charter.”
The council in November narrowly approved a $36 million plan to build dual garages on the north end of the stadium site. Schwartz voted against the parking proposal, arguing nonreinforced, free-standing garages destroy any hope for revenue-generating development adjacent to the Washington Nationals’ ballpark. Four members of the 11-member sports commission were not reappointed to the body by new Mayor Adrian Fenty. Vince Morris, former Mayor Anthony Williams’ communications director, is among Fenty’s commission nominees.
Schwartz’s resolution urges the commission “to display nothing but respect as it deals with the council.” It was co-sponsored by Council Members David Catania, Marion Barry, Kwame Brown and Jim Graham.
